New Top Gear

[Smellmet]

but it's meant to be about motoring, not 100% dicking about.

A patented Dennis "Nope." would be utterly insufficient here.

Well, when the show was rebooted in 2002, it was a fun show about cars, the dicking about was always there but it was alongside the races, power laps etc, you didn't get entire episodes dedicated to it, and that's my problem with it.

I get the Top Gear magazine every month and it is full of road tests with a more fun a colourful angle than it's printed competitors. It's not page after page of articles about people doing stunts. Top Gear is about cars.

 

[Relayer1]

but it's meant to be about motoring, not 100% dicking about.

A patented Dennis "Nope." would be utterly insufficient here.

Well, when the show was rebooted in 2002, it was a fun show about cars, the dicking about was always there but it was alongside the races, power laps etc, you didn't get entire episodes dedicated to it, and that's my problem with it.

I get the Top Gear magazine every month and it is full of road tests with a more fun a colourful angle than it's printed competitors. It's not page after page of articles about people doing stunts. Top Gear is about cars.

You can't dictate what people watch a show for. As I've said before, motoring shows don't interest me. I'm not a petrolhead. I'm middle aged and never learned to drive, because I didn't want to, and still don't.

I did become very fond of Top Gear though. I found it enjoyable fun and therefore recorded it regularly. That way I could watch it and fast forward through the star in a reasonably piced car bit, which was usually pretty dull.

I suspect that the majority of viewers like cars a bit more than I do, but I still think it was the dicking about that was the big draw, not the automobile coverage, otherwise it's viewing figures would have been in the 5th Gear range and overpopulated by sad motorsport buffs.

Top Gear WAS way more than that - it was a light entertainment show whether you admit it or not. The Beeb can reinvent it as a motoring magazine and people will watch, but in much smaller numbers. One of the lost viewers will be me, but I'll probably tune into Clarkson May and Hammond's new show, wherever it pops up...

 

[Smellmet]

Well I am a massive petrolhead and I've witnessed the show going from catering for people like me, to people like you, who aren't interested in the cars. Horses for courses. I just don't care for the direction the show has taken.

 

[Relayer1]

Well I am a massive petrolhead and I've witnessed the show going from catering for people like me, to people like you, who aren't interested in the cars. Horses for courses. I just don't care for the direction the show has taken.

Fair enough !

As it stands we may both get something out of the situation. Top Gear looks like it'll be back with a new format - probably a more serious one, and Wilman, Clarkson, May and Hammond look likely to do a new show very much like their old one...

 

[Brolan]

The BBC is not going to turn Top Gear into a serious show about cars, they aren't going to get good ratings that way. That would be a failure for them.

Besides for a serious car guy you have a Fifth Gear in the UK and Autoweek in the U.S. No need for more.

 

[Saul]

They dick about in 5th Gear too. Very fond of doing hand break turns.

 

[Smellmet]

Well I am a massive petrolhead and I've witnessed the show going from catering for people like me, to people like you, who aren't interested in the cars. Horses for courses. I just don't care for the direction the show has taken.

Fair enough !

As it stands we may both get something out of the situation. Top Gear looks like it'll be back with a new format - probably a more serious one, and Wilman, Clarkson, May and Hammond look likely to do a new show very much like their old one...

I'd welcome both - but as a motoring enthusiast, I'd gravitate to the serious one.

The BBC is not going to turn Top Gear into a serious show about cars, they aren't going to get good ratings that way. That would be a failure for them.

Besides for a serious car guy you have a Fifth Gear in the UK and Autoweek in the U.S. No need for more.

5th Gear hasn't been on British TV for several years, I would imagine the upheaval at Top Gear and the possibility of a new show with Clarkson and co on a non BBC channel would probably scupper it's chances. We'll see.

They dick about in 5th Gear too. Very fond of doing hand break turns.

I found the level of dicking about in 5th Gear to be at the right level to be honest, and would watch an episode of that over an episode of Top Gear like the ambulance one for example any day. For me it's about balance. People say Top Gear isn't about cars/motoring - OK remove the cars from the equation and what would you be left with?.

 

[BeatleJWOL]

Three hilarious fellas doing stupid shit to and with each other.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

5th Gear is most certainly still on British TV. In fact there are more series of it than Top Gear and 6 episodes of series 23 have aired.
http://www.history.co.uk/shows/fifth-gear

 

[Smellmet]

Three hilarious fellas doing stupid shit to and with each other.

I can watch Jackass or Dirty Sanchez for that and would get 100% more of a laugh out of it.

 

[Lonemagpie]

It just occurred to me when watching the traffic special of Mythbusters that they should just swap Tory, Kari and Grant in as the new Top Gear trio, and it'd work fine.

 

[BeatleJWOL]

Myth Gear?

I am more than okay with that.

Three hilarious fellas doing stupid shit to and with each other.

I can watch Jackass or Dirty Sanchez for that and would get 100% more of a laugh out of it.

I can see that, but it seems to me there are more fans of Top Gear in general than there could ever be petrolheads just in it for the cool cars, so

 

[Smellmet]

And for me, that's the disappointment have with the way the show has gone in the last few years. I'm aware I'm probably in a minority.

 

[hux]

I never minded the dicking about. It was when they started scripting it that I found it unwatchable. Perhaps the three worst actors in history trying to make very badly written comedy look spontaneous and natural

Clarkson: Hey, let's put something on Mays car for shits and giggles

Hammond: yeah, that'll be hilarious, tee hee hee

May: cock!!

 

[CorporalClegg]

Because Grannies Doing Donuts wasn't scripted at all...

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

I never minded the dicking about. It was when they started scripting it that I found it unwatchable. Perhaps the three worst actors in history trying to make very badly written comedy look spontaneous and natural

Clarkson: Hey, let's put something on Mays car for shits and giggles

Hammond: yeah, that'll be hilarious, tee hee hee

May: cock!!

It could just seem scripted because they do the same thing every single road trip. And like so much else in the series, it was funnier when it was newer.